MEN’S BASKETBALL: Last year’s NBA runners-up Indiana Pacers continued their wretched season with another loss, 116-120 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and remain bottom of the table with just six wins from their 37 games. 

Fellow strugglers New Orleans Pelicans went down 103-111 to the LA Lakers while Sacramento were edged out 100-98 by Dallas and Washington ended their poor run with a 120-112 win over Orlando.

MEN’S FOOTBALL: Goals from Rory Holden and Ryan Brobbel sealed a 2-1 home victory for The New Saints over Bala on Tuesday night and restored their four-point advantage in the Cymru Premier. 

Second-placed Connah’s Quay are on an eight-match winning run that included last week’s 3-1 win over defending champions TNS. Connah’s Quay next visit Caernarfon Town on Friday while TNS host Colwyn Bay.

MEN’S RUGBY UNION: Exeter winger Campbell Ridl has been handed a two-game suspension for his dangerous challenge on Henry Arundell during their 33-26 defeat at Bath on Saturday. 

Ridl collided with Arundell after mistiming his jump for a high ball in just the second minute of the match, and caused the Bath player to land directly on his head. 

After initially being shown a yellow card, Ridl received a 20-minute red. 

HORSE RACING: 55-year-old Lanfranco Dettori continued his elongated retirement tour with victory on Soy Poronguero at the Maronas track in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Tuesday. 

A three-time British flat racing champion, Dettori rode 287 Group One winners, including six Prix de L’Arc de Triomphes and a Breeders’ Cup Classic in a 35 year career. He will ride his final mount in February at Rio de Janeiro’s Gavea racecourse.

CYCLING: Reigning Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates announced his shock retirement from cycling today.

The 33-year-old from Bury won his second Grand Tour title in 2025 to add to the Vuelta a Espana jersey he claimed back in 2018.

Last year also saw Yates win his third stage of the Tour de France and, writing on Instagram, he said: “This may come as a surprise to many, but it is not a decision I have made lightly.

“I have been thinking about it for a long time, and it now feels like the right moment to step away from the sport. I am deeply proud of what I have managed to achieve, and equally grateful for the lessons that came with it.”

WOMEN’S TENNIS: Fran Jones followed up her career-best win over Emma Navarro by reaching the quarter-finals of the Auckland Open today.

The British number three claimed her first top-20 victory in the opening round and kept her run going with a 1-6 6-4 6-1 win against Austrian qualifier Sinja Kraus.

Jones looked to be heading for a rapid defeat at 6-1 3-0 down, but won 12 of the next 14 games to set up a last-eight meeting with seventh seed Wang Xinyu.

The Yorkshirewoman’s run should be enough to see her break into the world’s top 70 for the first time.

MEN’S CRICKET: Jacob Bethell’s coming-of-age century offered hope for the future as England’s Ashes present tipped towards another defeat in Sydney.

Bethell – 22 years old and playing just his sixth Test match – made a mockery of the awkward fact that he had never before scored a first-class hundred with a gem of an innings that relieved the end-of-tour gloom on day four at the SCG.

Heralded as a “diamond” by Stuart Broad in the Channel 7 commentary booth, Bethell delivered the goods with a high-class 142 not out.